WWE Main Event TV report

Tuesday, 05 August 2014 20:41

By Chris Aiken

August 5, 2014

WWE Main Event from Laredo featured the rekindling for one night of the feud that set the tone for the Zeb Colter character. In a border town in Texas, Jack Swagger and Alberto Del Rio had a strong match that played on a USA vs. Mexico dynamic.

Main Event opened with Alberto Del Rio waving the Mexican flag during his entrance. Del Rio cut a promo in Spanish and he thanked his Hispanic fans. Zeb Colter and Jack Swagger, along with the US flag, interrupted Del Rio. Colter channeled the origins of his character and went heel on Del Rio. Colter said “we” (I guess as in “we the people”) speak English. The segment led to Del Rio making a challenge and Zeb accepting a match on behalf of Swagger for later on.

Heath Slater & Titus O’Neil beat Goldust & Stardust. Before the match, Slater cut a promo about his upset “victory” over Seth Rollins on Raw the previous night. He botched his lines (probably on purpose) so Titus scolded him. The match itself was evidence that the Goldust and Stardust characters are arguably much better in an actual match instead of campy backstage skits. Every moment from their ring entrance to the finish of the short match showcased the dynamic of the characters much better than the recent backstage skits.

In the match, Stardust did a cartwheel into a dropkick early on. Titus tagged in only to get caught with a dropkick and springboard forearm smash off the top rope from Stardust. Titus caught Stardust in the air on a cross body off the second rope. Titus gave him a few backbreakers and flung him off to the side. Titus tagged out and then quickly tagged back in. Stardust started making a comeback and went for another cross body. Yet again, Titus caught him. However, this time Titus went to toss him aside and Stardust landed on his feet to cut off Titus and make a tag. Goldust ran wild after the hot tag. Slater ran into a powerslam from Goldust and Titus broke up the pin attempt for a nearfall. Stardust jumped off the shoulders of his crouching brother (similar to the Hardy’s “Poetry in Motion”) and clubbed Titus. Still, Titus kicked Goldust after Slater went for a sunset flip so Slater scored the pinfall for an upset victory. Slater celebrated like crazy afterwards.

Divas Champion AJ Lee beat Summer Rae in a non-title match. Billed as her first appearance since an injury angle, AJ skipped to the ring like nothing was wrong. After two swinging neckbreakers and a dropkick where AJ landed on her neck, she began to sell an injury. Summer Rae briefly got heat on her until AJ countered her way into a standing headscissors that transitioned into the black widow. Summer tapped out and AJ won via submission in a very short match.

Afterwards, Tom Phillips conducted a post-interview with AJ. She told a fairy tale about herself in the role of a queen who had her crown (the title) stolen by a witch (Paige). Instead of waiting for a “white knight” to save her, AJ said she came back and recaptured the crown herself. Paige interrupted her and smugly suggested she could be AJ’s white knight. Paige said she respected and loved AJ. Paige labeled them “frienemies” before saying she wanted them to remain friends in spite of their scheduled divas title match at SummerSlam. Paige vowed to regain the title. Meanwhile, AJ vowed to retain.

Jack Swagger (with Zeb Colter) beat Alberto Del Rio. Swagger had his ribs taped to sell a supposed injury at the hands of Rusev from an angle on Raw. The crowd was split as some chanted “USA” and others chanted “Mexico” during the match. Swagger is a babyface in his feud with Rusev, but he played subtle heel where at the beginning as he bailed out of the ring to stall and sell the ribs. Later on, Del Rio would wrestle more like the heel with a rudo style.

After some early exchanges, Swagger backdropped Del Rio over the ropes to the floor. Swagger rammed Del Rio into the barricade. When Swagger attempted to come back in the ring, Del Rio cut him off with an enzuigiri before a commercial. After the break, Swagger powered out of a chinlock only to hit the ringpost with his shoulder. Del Rio worked the shoulder and rammed Swagger into the barricade. Del Rio jumped off the top rope to deliver a forearm smash.

Moments later, Swagger hit his shoulder a second time when he missed a charge into a corner. Del Rio applied a cross armbreaker in the ropes like a tarantula. Del Rio went to the top rope but got crotched. Swagger gave Del Rio a superplex off the top. Swagger fired up and hit a big boot to set up a Swagger bomb for a nearfall. The crowd appeared captivated with the match by this point as more nearfalls followed.

Del Rio used a tornado DDT off the top for the next nearfall. Del Rio went for an armbar submission but Swagger countered it and slammed him before another nearfall. Del Rio executed a tilt-a-whirl neckbreaker on Swagger before a superkick for yet another close nearfall. Del Rio applied the cross armbreaker and Swagger countered into the ankle lock. Del Rio escaped and went for an enzuigiri. Swagger caught his leg then he once again applied the ankle lock and Del Rio tapped out. Zeb Colter brought the US flag into the ring afterwards so Swagger could wave Old Glory as the show closed..